y that no woman ever arrived to the performance of that art
so as to do it like her. I liked the first and the last of these
things very well, and I attended her some time in the practice, just as
a deputy attends a midwife, without any pay.

At length she put me to practice. She had shown me her art, and I had
several times unhooked a watch from her own side with great dexterity.
At last she showed me a prize, and this was a young lady big with
child, who had a charming watch. The thing was to be done as she came
out of church. She goes on one side of the lady, and pretends, just as
she came to the steps, to fall, and fell against the lady with so much
violence as put her into a great fright, and both cried out terribly.
In the very moment that she jostled the lady, I had hold of the watch,
and holding it the right way, the start she gave drew the hook out, and
she never felt it. I made off immediately, and left my schoolmistress
to come out of her pretended fright gradually, and the lady too; and
presently the watch was missed. 'Ay,' says my comrade, 'then it was
those rogues that thrust me down, I warrant ye; I wonder the
gentlewoman did not miss her watch before, then we might have taken
them.'

She humoured the thing so well that nobody suspected her, and I was got
home a full hour before her. This was my first adventure in company.
The watch was indeed a very fine one, and had a great many trinkets
about it, and my governess allowed us #20 for it, of which I had half.
And thus I was entered a complete thief, hardened to the pitch above
all the reflections of conscience or modesty, and to a degree which I
must acknowledge I never thought possible in me.

Thus the devil, who began, by the help of an irresistible poverty, to
push me into this wickedness, brought me on to a height beyond the
common rate, even when my necessities were not so great, or the
prospect of my misery so terrifying; for I had now got into a little
vein of work, and as I was not at a loss to handle my needle, it was
very probable, as acquaintance came in, I might have got my bread
honestly enough.

I must say, that if such a prospect of work had presented itself at
first, when I began to feel the approach of my miserable
circumstances--I say, had such a prospect of getting my bread by
working presented itself then, I had never fallen into this wicked
trade, or into such a wicked gang as I was now embarked with; but
practice had hard